ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (02/20/90)
I have experimented with installing multiple script systems on the same machine at the same time. In my case it was a graft of the Kanji J1-6.0.2 and the Arabic AB1-6.0.3 onto an Australasian Z1-6.0.3. I created my hybrid system with ResEdit, copying the appropriate itl0, itl1, itl2, itl4, itlb, KCHR and SICN resources (I can't remember if this is an exhaustive list), and the appropriate fonts, into my System file, and then I copied the appropriate INIT and cdev and other supporting files into my system folder. One other thing I had to do was change the ID of the FOND resource for Chicago from 0 to 16383. The first word of the FOND needs to be changed to the same number as well. I didn't need to write any FKEYs or any other code to switch between script systems. As soon as I restarted my machine with two or more scripts installed, the appropriate SICN (small icon) would appear in the menu bar to indicate the current keyboard script. I could rotate scripts by clicking on this icon, or by pressing command-space. Also, script-manager-friendly programs are supposed to check for a change of script when you change fonts in a document, and update the keyboard script accordingly. All this *sort* of worked. I had particular trouble with the Kanji software; every once in a while the Kanji input system would get into Kana-only input mode and refuse to come out. Of course, the fact that I had no documentation for any of this didn't help. I seemed to find an incompatibility between MacroMaker and the Kanji script system. Specifically, I was getting intermittent crashes about once every couple of days. Removing MacroMaker seemed to make these crashes less frequent. But I never managed to pin down the exact cause. There could very well have been a problem with the mismatch in versions between the Kanji and the other two systems. The main hassles were with all this American-made software, that behaved very strangely with non-Roman writing systems. WriteNow 2.0 (and some other applications) put large gaps after every sequence of Kanji text, thinking that the double-byte characters were taking up about twice the width that they actually were. MacWrite 5.0 (this was before MacWrite II) seemed to be the best-behaved, though of course its word wrap wasn't very effective with no spaces between Kanji words! Also, it was quite a trick to avoid getting the insertion point between the two halves of a double-byte character. Funnily enough, mixing right-to-left (Arabic) and left-to-right text seemed to work quite well. A more subtle problem with double-byte (Kanji) characters is that it is possible for searches to match *parts* of characters. I wonder how much performance it would cost to make a word processor Script-Manager-compatible as a matter of course. Any developers of text-intensive software care to comment? Lawrence D'Oliveiro They-pay-me-to-mess-about Consultant Computer Services Dept, University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand DISCLAIMER: all the above information was gleaned from non-intensive experimentation over a period of a few weeks. I don't know any Japanese or Arabic, though I did get some help from a lecturer in our Japanese department (I don't know of anybody on campus who speaks Arabic). In other words, try this at home at your own risk!
takayama@vcomnz.vcom.sony.co.jp (Yoshihisa Takayama) (02/26/90)
In article <169.25e1862b@waikato.ac.nz> ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz writes: >I have experimented with installing multiple script systems on the same >machine at the same time. In my case it was a graft of the Kanji >J1-6.0.2 and the Arabic AB1-6.0.3 onto an Australasian Z1-6.0.3. I >created my hybrid system with ResEdit, copying the appropriate itl0, >itl1, itl2, itl4, itlb, KCHR and SICN resources (I can't remember if >this is an exhaustive list), and the appropriate fonts, into my System >file, and then I copied the appropriate INIT and cdev and other supporting >files into my system folder. I succeeded to make a graft system by above information. My graft system is for Japanese-Kanzi and Hebrew on standard USA system version 6.0.3. I use Kanzi J1-6.0.2 and HB6.0.3 resources and other files. >Kanji text, thinking that the double-byte characters were taking up >about twice the width that they actually were. MacWrite 5.0 (this was >before MacWrite II) seemed to be the best-behaved, though of course >its word wrap wasn't very effective with no spaces between Kanji words! >Also, it was quite a trick to avoid getting the insertion point between >the two halves of a double-byte character. I know a word processing software which has more script manager compatibility. The name of which is "WordMaker". It is lower price than MacWrite5.0 in the market. ------------------------------------------- Sony Corporation Takayama-Yosihisa
keesh@ekster.cwi.nl (Kees van't Hoff) (02/27/90)
takayama@vcomnz.vcom.sony.co.jp (Yoshihisa Takayama) writes: >I know a word processing software which has more script manager >compatibility. The name of which is "WordMaker". It is lower price >than MacWrite5.0 in the market. Could give some more info on this product? Thanks. >------------------------------------------- >Sony Corporation >Takayama-Yosihisa -- Kees van't Hoff, CWI, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. keesh@cwi.nl